Improvement in botaby steam engines



J. R. WILLETT & 'L. BRIEN.

ROTARY STEAM ENGINE.

No. 61,695. Patented Jan. 29, 1867.

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Letters Patent No. 61,695, dated January 29, 1867.

IMP OVEM NT IN ROTARY STEAM ENGINES.

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TO ALLv WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that we, JAMES WILL-Err and LIvrnosrosBmEn, of Neshvillein the. county of Davidson, and State of Tennessee, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Rotary Steam Engines; and we do hereby declare'that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

Theobject of this invention is to more economicalij use steam in its direct 'action upon the driving-shaft of a rotary steam engine; and the invention. consists in' the arrangement of the buckets "0 upon the. piston B,

in such a manner that the piston shall receive and communicste to the driving-shaft the power of lthe stelam in. n more advantageous manner than heretofore. And to enable others skilled in the art to make and use our invention, we will proceed to describe, its construction and'operstion, reference being hadto'the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, andfto the letters of reference markedthereon;

Figure 1 represents an, end elevation of our engine-with the cover or cylinder-head on. Figure 2 is a transverse section through the middle of thepylinder.

Figure 3 is a section of the cylinder-head, and showing a portion of the piston'throug h the line yy of fig. 1. v

Figure 4 is a view of the outside or movable portion of-the bucket; and Figure 5 is a. view'of the outer edge of the-same. Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in the dra.wings.

" A represents the cylinder, B the piston, and C oud Eform the bucket. The inside of A does not form :1. pcI'- v fect cylinder; it is cylindrical, and the sides are parallel, but the interior surface forms an ecccntriqas seen in the drawing This eccentric has a packing strip, a, running through it, ,whiclrmny be remoi'ed when required.

The object of this'piece is to keep the joint between the piston and: this portion of the cylinder steam-tight at all times. It may. be pressed out by spiral springsjor otherwise. a The driving-shaft D of the engine posses through the'centre 0i the outside diameter oi" the cylinder, and through the centre of the piston. The outside surface or periphery of the piston,orms a stcam-tight joint on the eccentric portion of the cylinder ut the point a. There-are recesses, E, foruied in the face of the piston, a portion of' which, 6,- with the movable portjon, a, forms a. V-shaped bucket, upon whichthesteam acts in propelling the engine. The sprin' g, which- D presses out Q, is located in the recess or in the bottom of this porti9n,E, of the; bucket. This recess is surrounded at each end .by a segment of a packing-ring], the ends of which are iilish with .the periphery of the piston. It is pressed outward by springs, and forms a steam joint around the recess or bucket The other portion of the bucket C is hinged to one edge of E,' as seen atlf: The spiral spring'g'bcars against the inner side, pressing against ,the inner surface of the cylinder,-keeping it steem-tight therewith. The side of .0,

shown in fig. 4, forms an arc of a circle of the same diameter as the pisto'mand when it is passing thepoint a of the' eccentric,its outersurface is uniform with theperiphery of the piston. There are packing-p'ieces '71 at each end of C, which are 'p r'essed against the cylinder-heads by spiral springs. There are also packing-rings in each head of the cylinderfivhich sire pressed against the ends, of the piston by spiral springs. These pieces, with their springs, are seen at i, fig. 3. Jyrepresents the induction pipe, and -I the eduction or exhuustpipe. or m, fig 5, represent spaces in the ,edge of C, through which thesteem passes before it presses onthe bucket at b. The edge of 0 receives the pressure of the steam at n n n, the steam acting atjthose points nearly ct right angleswith the shaft. These points, however, present but a small surface for the action of the steamjanrl we depend mainly upon the interior surface of the bucket, as here a large additional surface is presented, andthe power of the engine is augmented accordingly. l In this description we have represented but two of these buckets in afpiston, but any desired number may be employed, and other sprinzgs than spiral springs inuy bc cmploycd to press out the portion C of the bucket.

The operation of this engine is readily understood. The piston moves in the direction of .the arrow5,'a.nd takes steam as the bucket passes the induction pipe J, and exhausts it when it passes the educticn pipe I. The steam actsngainst the interior surface as well as on the edge of G, sud against-the bottom of the bucket ,or recess at 6. The result is, thepropelling shaft is driven with great power by aeons'tant and steady application "of steuin.

We do not claim I the parts the subject-matter otlthe patents of Perry B. Holmes, August 28, 1860, andv John Collicott, April 3, 1866, cited in the ofiicial letter of November 15,1866, but what we do claim, snddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is,- p p The constructionsnd arrangement of the bucket-C, end the recess E, with the packing-pieces band 7',

spring g, and piston 13, as herein described and set forth.

. JAMES R, WILLETT, Witnesses: LIVINGSTON IBRIEN. P. W. Burn, 1 E. R. GLASOOOK. 

